For the third time since 2004, the Dallas Opera is presenting Carmen. Well, there are reasons for its enduring popularity, and it sells tickets.

With earthy dramatis personae including Gypsies, smugglers, soldiers and a star bullfighter, it's gripping theater: doomed obsession confronts live-for-the-moment irresponsibility. And composer George Bizet's tunes, elegantly orchestrated, are second to none; you'll still be humming them the next day.

The Gothenburg Opera production that opened Friday night at the Winspear Opera House is done opéra comique style, with spoken, rather than sung, dialogue. Visually, it's mainly traditional, with splendid mid-19th-century costumes by Sue Blane. But set designer Michael Vale takes some liberties, perversely cramping the first and last acts far forward on the stage.

The opening "Seville street scene" looks like something imagined by the surrealist artist Max Ernst: crumbling walls, rusting iron girders and pipes, lots of fencing at which both soldiers and cigarette girls clutch far too much. The third act's "rocky place" is a dark, bare stage, with a piled-up cart. The last act, supposedly outside the bullfight ring, gives the smartly dressed crowd hardly any room to maneuver; we get a pretty pitiful excuse for the "procession."

The staging, created by Scottish director David McVicar and revived by Jack Furness, has some subtly new slants on characterizations. From the start, Sara Gartland's Micaëla is hardly the meek goody-two-shoes of tradition. She's self-assured, and decisive in rejecting the soldiers' crude advances. A late replacement in the role, she delivers a soprano of immediately arresting strength, clarity and expressive nuance.

Stephen Costello plays Don José and Sara Gartland is Micaëla during a dress rehearsal of the Dallas Opera production of Carmen at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas on Oct. 16, 2018.

(Robert W. Hart/Special Contributor)

We know from the start that Stephen Costello's Don José is a troubled soul who'll be prey to the machinations of the beautiful, wily Carmen. His growing desperation is vividly captured in a sinewy lyric tenor. What I miss is poetry, a suavity of legato, a subtlety of dynamics and coloration.

Stéphanie d'Oustrac plays the title role in Dallas Opera's Carmen.

(Robert W. Hart/Special Contributor)

French mezzo Stéphanie d'Oustrac comes on as an over-the-top Carmen, a street fighter with a wildly untamed voice to match. But as the role demands more subtlety, she delivers, her seguidilla "Près des remparts de Séville" exquisitely seductive. Alexander Vinogradov is an Escamillo devoid of self-doubt, the big-man-on-campus type, but his big, brassy bass softens in expressions of love.

After splendid singing in the season-opening Flying Dutchman, the chorus, prepared by Alexander Rom, was a bit scruffier on this opening night; ensemble and blend will surely improve in subsequent performances. The small children's chorus kept rushing.

The real stars of the show may be music director Emmanuel Villaume and the Dallas Opera Orchestra. Villaume has this music in his blood, and he gauges timing, dynamics and shape to perfect dramatic effect. The orchestra gave him all the precision and nuance he could have wished Friday night, with particularly eloquent wind and horn contributions.

Formerly classical music critic of The Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell continues covering the beat as a freelance writer. Classical music coverage at The News is supported in part by a grant from the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. The News makes all editorial decisions.